Four-member committee: Panel to examine feasibility of having a new fiscal year

The government has constituted a four-member committee to examine the desirability and feasibility of having a new financial year. The committee, headed by former Chief Economic Adviser Shankar Acharya, will look into the impact of having a new financial year in relation to effect of different agricultural crop periods, taxation systems and procedures and impact on businesses. Former Cabinet

Secretary K M Chandrasekhar, Tamil Nadu’s former Finance Secretary P V Rajaraman and Centre for Policy Research Senior Fellow Rajiv Kumar are the other members of the committee. The committee shall submit its report to the government by December 31, a finance ministry release said.

The committee will examine merits and demerits of various dates for the commencement of the financial year, including the current date of April 1, taking into account the studies done in the past on the desirability of a change in the financial year, the release said. It will also look into the suitability of a new financial year from the point of view of receipts and expenditure estimates of central and state governments, relationship of financial year to the working season, statistics and data collection, and the convenience of legislatures for transacting Budget work, it said.